Archive for Trading Antiques
Your own Antiques Business
Posted by: | CommentsDo you love antiques, vintage or retro and like to be involved with it full time? Would you like to quit the rat race or make a little money on the side? Many dream of setting up their own antiques business selling either real antiques, or vintage / retro pieces, I certainly did. These days I find myself regularly asked about becoming an antiques dealer. How do you give up the day job and trade in old stuff all day? Well now I’ve decided to let you in on a few secrets about the trade and how to deal in antiques gleaned over many years in the business.
Antiques are technically over 100 years with vintage and retro being newer but not new. For the purposes of this series of articles I will talk about antiques and the antique trade but everything here is equally applicable to selling antique, vintage and retro items unless I specifically say otherwise.
Why is the antiques business different?
The Antiques business is difficult to learn and find advice on. Stock is more difficult to obtain than simply nipping into your local wholesaler or ordering over the Internet from China. Have you noticed how most antiques dealers do not go straight from school or university into the trade?Unless you are lucky enough to have an antiques dealer for a parent it is most likely that you will have had a long career before hand. Most of the suggestions and advice given here apply no matter which branch of the antiques or vintage trade interests you. You may wish to be a general dealer, Specialise in furniture , pottery , glass, Victorian Antiques or like me in antique and vintage jewellery.
There are one or two books on the antiques trade but not many, there is no given career path. Antiques Dealer is not a job you can find a vacancy advertised very often and the trade does have a slightly doggy reputation to be overcome.
How to start your own Antiques Business
Over the coming weeks I’m going to cover all aspects of starting and running your own antiques business including:
Things to consider before starting , the different types of dealer and specialising
Finding Stock
Organising Stock and Care and Repair
Selling Stock.
Car Boot Sales / Flea Markets. Real life Auctions, Antiques Fairs and Antique Centers. Ebay and your own Website
Packing and Posting Antiques
Keeping Records
Money and Profit
Networking and why other dealers are important
You many notice that I have not included running your own physical shop. This is because its the one way of selling antiques I haven’t tried. If any reader with relevant experience wants to write a blog entry for me on this topic I will be happy to publish it here.
Anne’s Story
So you might be asking what qualifies me to write about becoming an antiques dealer and why I would want to do this . Let me tell you more.
Once upon a time in the last century I had what I now call a proper job. Actually in the overall scheme of the world it was a glittering career in corporate IT. I had huge responsibility for money and people and spend much of my time travelling all over Europe, living on expenses and earning a huge salary that many years later I can only dream of. Sounds glamorous and exciting? Yes I had the Corporate executive job title and perks in household name companies you will all have heard of but I wasn’t happy. I spent my weeks slaving at work and my weekends spending the salary to compensate myself for having to be miserable during the week. Sound familiar? I know there are thousands of you out there just the same.
By my early 30′s I began to realise that earning as much as I possibly could was not going to make me happy, the glittering career is not everything. I felt that it was all pointless and that I needed to get out. My hobby was antiques ( I had been fascinated by old and interesting stuff since I was about 8 years old) and antiques was what I wanted to do.
Now as I mentioned earlier becoming an antiques dealer is not something you can go on a course for or where there is a defined career path. This is something that I had to work out for myself and it took me about 12 more years before I was in the position to resign my career and make the full time leap of faith into antiques. During those 12 years I spent nearly all of my spare time working towards becoming a full time antique dealer
This series of articles will be based on the experiences of those 12 years and in the 10 years since I finally did move full time into antiques. I’m going to tell about what worked for me and what didn’t. Where I made money and where I lost it. Where time was well spent and how to waste months for no progress. You may wonder why I’m telling all this. Am I not creating my own competition? Maybe but one thing about my competition is that they are vital for my business. We need each other which is why I have dedicated a chapter to networking.
I hope you find something of interest here and if you too are thinking of entering the antiques trade do leave a comment and tell how you are getting on.
Vintage is not a designer brand
Posted by: | CommentsToday I’m having a rant, not done that on here for a while but some Internet sellers are beginning to annoy me and what much worse they are misleading customers. Have you noticed how words like “Vintage”, “Antique” and “Victorian” are used by many Internet sellers of fashion items these days? Actually I believe that many of them are breaking the trades descriptions act along the way. Hopefully this article will help those looking for genuine vintage or antique to avoid buying new by mistake.
Vintage may be popular but it is not something you can buy wholesale from China, stock up on to a website and sell hundreds of one item. One of the major points about antique, vintage and Victorian is that they are not making them any more. You have to search out pieces and the pieces you find are almost unique.
This guide can also be applied to other terms including Art Deco, Art Nouveau, Georgian and even Retro.
What Vintage is not:
Vintage is not brand new, you cannot buy it wholesale over the interenet from China. It rarely comes all clean and nicely packed. Two pieces are rarely alike .
“Vintage ” ( and Antique, Victorian etc etc) is not a designer brand. You cannot get someone to make you vintage if it is new then it is no more vintage than black is white. On the other hand you can come across some brands which are vintage eg can no longer be bough as new.
Vintage necklace
What is vintage :
What is vintage is a great topic for debate. To my mind it should be at least 25 years old, I accept that others would say 20 or 40 years but I am sure that all genuine vintage dealers and collectors would agree it has to have some age to be vintage. In general an item has not become vintage until it is no longer available as new in the shops in its current form.
Due to its age Vintage ( Antique, Victorian etc) also has other interesting features, its style and method of manufacture is of the past. The pieces are pre-owned and many have signs of age or wear. This is not necessarily damage and some signs of age can be most desirable such as metal acquiring a nice patina. Vintage pottery may be decorated in colours which cannot be re0created today due to the toxicity of the processes involved.
Vintage is Green
Unlike most new stuff, buying vintage is green. You are re- using, re-cycling, spending a lower carbon footprint or whatever the latest term is. Much new stuff these days comes from the other side of the world and a far greater percentage of vintage and antique items were made in this country or closer to home.
How to spot real vintage on the Internet
Many items which are described as vintage or antique on the Internet are actually new. Here’s a few tips for spotting real vintage and antique items on the Internet.
- How many of an item does the vendor offer for sale? If they have more than one then it is likely that the item is new. Occasionally it is possible to have more than one item but it doesn’t happen very often. For example there are over 1200 pieces for sale on AntiquesAvenue.co.uk. I have a few duplicates but this would be way less than 1% of my stock.
- How is it described? Vintage style or vintage inspired are most probably new. Does the site actually give an age for the item? Most vintage sellers will give some indication of how old the piece if, if not ask before you buy.
- Is the website specialised? Good Vintage and Antique sellers tend to specialise in vintage and antique items and have very little new or modern stuff on the website.
- Google Shopping. It is a requirement of putting your items into Google shopping that you state is a piece is New, Used or Refurbished. Many many items described as vintage actually say new as the condition in Google shopping so you can check here.
- Look at the photograph? Is it highly professional? Us vintage and antique sellers have to take a picture of every item we sell and because it is used for just the one sale it is not economical to get a professional photographs taken. We cannot get stock photographs from our suppliers and so many of us have photographs which are taken by amateurs
- Is there a comment about condition in the listing of the piece? If so then it is more likely to be a genuine vintage or antique item. Sellers of new dont comment on condition normally.
Buying Vintage Style
My aim here has been to educate those interested in buying genuine vintage or antique so that they do not fall for buying new by mistake. Should you prefer to buy vintage style but new items then do look out for items described as “Vintage Style” or “Vintage Inspired”.
Happy Hunting Anne x
Vintage Jewellery Picture Gallery
Posted by: | CommentsLooking for Vintage Jewellery? Have you ever seen the picture galleries on Google for AntiquesAvenue’s Jewellery? Every week I add all my available stock and you can view my items as a picture gallery rather than looking through the shop.
To access the picture galleries you can just go to Google and type what you are looking for into the search box. For example type ” Vintage Jewellery” and hit enter and then select the “Shopping” option from the top menu. You will then see a whole array of different items including lot of new jewellery, books and Jewellery stands. However on the left hand side is a menu headed any shop and you should see AntiquesAvenue listed their. Click on AntiquesAvenue and you will see all my items listed as Vintage Jewellery.
You can of course repeat this search with terms such as Antique Jewellery, Glass Necklaces, Silver Charms , Art Deco Jewellery , blue brooches or any other term which suits your requirements. Here are a few I have created for you
I hope you find this tip useful
Anne
Vintage Jewellery and Accessories Auctions
Posted by: | CommentsI’m a great fan of auctions, not the eBay type but real life auctions and some of you may well have read the beginners guides I have written in the past. I regularly attend auctions and indeed buy most of my antique and vintage jewellery stock that way.
One of the steps I advise is to research when and where auctions are being held well in advance and to study the catalogues. Whilst doing my own research earlier today I came across this auction, I wont be attending but may well be useful .
Vintage Perfume Bottles.
I used to have a large collection of vintage perfume bottles especially the Devon Violets variety. Most of these have now gone to their new homes but if I were still collecting perfume bottles I certainly would want to be attending this perfume bottle auction in Leeds on June 12th. There are over 200 lots so there should be something for most tastes.
Vintage necklace from auction
Do you want to attend vintage and Antique jewellery Auctions too?
You can find Specialist antique Jewellery auctions, I believe Bonhams run them regularly for example. Specialist auctions tend to be pricey so I look for auctions where they have jewellery as part of the main auction. For example Bamfords in Derby always have a nice selection of vintage jewellery for you to choose from. Take a look at your local auction house, there is one in most major towns and you can normally look up the calendar of events on the Internet.
If your going to buy jewellery at auction do give yourself plenty of time in advance to view. The viewing will be crowded and unless you view well in advance you may find yourself struggling to get to see the pieces you are interested int. The auction will start more or less on time even if you have not finished looking. Take along a pen and paper and a 10 x magnifying loupe. you need to be prepared to accurately assess what you are going to buy and jot down notes on the item and how much you are prepared to pay. Don’t worry if you don’t buy anything at the first couple of jewellery auctions you attend. You will soon get the hang of it and snapping up some real bargains.
Vintage Jewellery Wholesale
I’ve been going to a few to many auctions recently and now have wholesale quantities of vintage costume jewellery available at discount prices. There is no gold at all in quantity but there may be a little silver. Mainly the wholesale quantities I have available are necklaces, faux pearls, chains and brooches. These are all vintage and will date circa 1920s through to the last 10 years. Most of it is from the 1950s through 1970s. If you are based in the UK and are interested then please do get in touch. I believe that this jewellery would be most suitable for sale at car boots , markets and antique fairs. You may wish to try a few lots on eBay as well. Most pieces should sell for £3 to £20. I also have some lots suitable for repair, restoration and craft projects. Sorry but the weight of wholesale quantities will make it too expensive to ship outside of the UK.
Where to sell Vintage Jewellery and Antique Jewellery
Posted by: | CommentsDo you want to sell your vintage jewellery? Every day I receive several e.mails offering to sell me vintage jewellery . Since I never buy privately I have put together a comprehensive guide to selling your unwanted jewels . Over the coming weeks I will examine how and where to sell in more detail, how to value your jewellery and how much to expect. For today here is an introductory guide to places you can sell you pieces
There are several ways to sell your old jewellery and each way has its merits and drawbacks. You will need to balance the amount of effort and cost you put in against the reward for each way and choose which suits you best. As with most things in life you will find that, as a general rule, the way which requires the most time, cost and effort will bring in the most money and the quickest easiest way to sell will bring you the least.
First Steps
If you just want a quick sale with no effort you can skip this step and go straight to where to sell. Before choosing where to sell your vintage jewellery take a few minutes to consider:
1 . Do you know what it is and how old? What is it made of ?
If you don’t know what you’ve got then either research to find out or avoid eBay, antique fairs and your own website.
2. How much time and money do you want to put into selling it?
Little time and money then sell via a real life auciton house or for scrap or to a high street jewellery. Find a good dealer or internet site takes time. Selling through eBay or at a fair takes time and money
3. What condition is the piece of jewellery in?
If less than excellent condition then go for scrapping it ( if gold) or take to your local auction house. It is unlikely to be worthwhile having the jewellery repaired just for the purposes of selling it.
Where to sell your Vintage Jewellery
These are in order of ease of selling
Sell your gold for scrap.
Effort required : Very low, £’s gained very low, costs very low
When to use: I would only consider this for broken pieces
Where: There are shops and stalls in every high street buying gold for cash and a little research on the internet will bring up several to choose from.
Advantages: Quick and easy for cash
Drawbacks: Only buying gold. You will get a lot less than your jewellery is worth unless it is in poor condition.
The high street Jeweller.
Effort required very low, £’s gained low, costs very low
When to use: You have quality Antique Jewellery, hallmarked gold and silver jewellery in good condition and want the money quickly.
Where: Your local high street, look for independent jewellers not major chains
Advantages: Quick for cash, you should get more than scrap price for nice jewellery.
Drawbacks , only buying gold and silver
NB, you will probably need proof of identity when selling to a high street jewellery
Real life auction.
Effort required very low, £’s gained low to high, cost high
When to use: When you are in no hurry for the money, you have little time,
Where: There is an auction house in most major towns. Find yours on the Internet or in the phone book.
Drawbacks: The price you gain is uncertain and depends on the buyers on the day however you can set a minimum reserve. Costs can be high
Advantages: A good auctioneer will spot something of high value and help ensure the highest price is realised.
The private Jewellery Dealer.
Effort required medium, £’s gained low to medium, costs very low
When to use: You have a specialist collection eg named costume jewellery
Where: Private Jewellery dealers can be found selling at antique fairs and antiques centers.
Drawbacks, finding the right dealer to sell to may take time and effort
Advantages: If you have a specialist collection to sell to a specialist dealer you may get a very good price
An Internet Vintage Jewellery website.
Effort required low to medium, £’s gained low to medium, cost low
When to use: You have a specialist collection eg named costume jewellery
Where: Research in your favourite Internet search engine. Some jewellery sites advertise that they buy jewellery.
Drawbacks, you are going to have to trust the website as you will have to post out your jewellery before receiving any money.
Advantages: If you have a specialist collection to sell to a specialist dealer you may get a very good price
Car Boot Sale
Effort required medium, £’s gained low, cost low
When to use: You have a lot of costume jewellery which is quite new or broken.
Where: Check in your local evening paper
Drawbacks: You have to get up early and stand in a field for the morning . You will need to keep the prices low
Advantages: Quick cash , you can sell a lot if your prices are low.
eBay.
Effort required medium to high, £’s gained low to high, cost medium
When to use: You just have few pieces in good condition to sell, you know what they are and have plenty of time
Drawbacks, takes some PC knowledge. You need good photos of your items and will need to post them out. Costs can be quite high
Advantages: You can set a minimum price for your item, quicker to get your money than real life auction
Antiques and collectables fairs.
Effort required high, £’s gained medium, cost high
When to use: You have plenty of time, you know what you have to sell and you enjoy talking to people.
Where: You usually need to book in advance. Look on the antiques trade gazette website or in your local paper for details of where antiques fairs are held
Drawbacks, you need a lot of jewellery to consider taking a stall at an antiques fair. You pay in advance with no guarantee of a sale. You need to set the price of your jewellery. early morning start and long day
Advantages: This can be the start of a small jewellery business or a great hobby.
Your own website.
Effort required very high, £’s gained medium to high, cost medium to high
When to use: When you want to sell Jewellery for a living or a serious hobby.
Where: You need to set up your own shopping cart I use and recommend EKM but there are others. Research on the Internet
Drawbacks, takes a lot of effort and time before you start selling anything. May be months before your first sale . You need good PC knowledge, good photos and need to fix the price of your jewellery. Each piece sold needs to be posted out. Up front costs high
Advantages: If selling high volumes then costs can be lower per piece than selling on eBay or at real life auction.
Lighting Vintage Jewellery Images
Posted by: | CommentsWhen selling your antique or vintage jewellery on your own website or on eBay the hardest thing to do and the most essential is to have great images. Vintage Jewellery without pictures simply does not sell as it is a unique product a customer cannot get a good impression of the piece from a description. Dark and grainy pictures will not get your antique locket sold and your vintage ring will get a much higher price if your customers can see the sparkle in the gems.
Antique Brooch Image
Lighting Vintage Jewellery Images
Great vintage jewellery photos are achieved with a combination of a good camera, a steady tripod and to my mind the most important the right lighting. With poor lighting you get dark and grainy pictures and no amount of effort with a photo editing program is going to make your charms stand out individually from the bracelet . Silver will appear grey and that gold looks so dull it is very unattractive.
The difference light makes to vintage jewellery is amazing. Compare these photographs of the same trio of three Miracle brooches. Both these photos have been taken with flash. The first is without a good lighting system and the second is well light. Both have the same camera left on automatic settings.
Brooches without lighting
Well lit brooches
You can achieve excellent photographs under very bright natural sun lighting. The first of these cameo brooch pictures was taken inside , by a window on a bright sunny day. How many bright sunny days like this do we get here in the UK? To overcome the problem of dull days I have just invested in a new lighting system for photographing my jewellery. Here are the results bright sunny day V good artificial lighting. The second photograph of the same cameo jewellery has a lot more detail showing in the carving it was taken under a very strong daylight bulb in a light reflecting tent.
Bright sunny daylight cameo
light box cameo
Please note the brightness of these antique jewellery images has not been adjusted in a photo editing program. The clarity and brightness is as the images came from the camera. Hopefully from now on I will be able to get bright and clear jewellery images no matter when I take them.
Auction Party – Want to be on TV?
Posted by: | CommentsITV1′s brand new antiques show, AUCTION PARTY is looking for participants with a passion for beautiful objects and an eye for turning a profit. We are offering participants the opportunity to host their very own auction, from within their own home. Furthermore, participants will be given £500 to go out and, with the help of our antiques expert, gather a collection of items to then sell at their auction. Family, friends and neighbours will be invited to view the lots for sale while sipping on champagne and nibbling on canapés. With a professional auctioneer present to help them through, the auction pieces will be displayed around the participant’s home before going under the hammer. At the end of the day, the cash is counted and (hopefully) profits are revealed!
If you are interested in taking part please do not hesitate to contact us via our phone line - 0207 157 4599 or email – auctionparty@itv.com, clearly stating your name and daytime contact number.
Auction Party
Selling your gold Jewellery
Posted by: | CommentsWant to sell you old gold Jewellery?
Have you been tempted by one of the many adverts offering to buy your gold jewellery? These companies are all over the place: on TV, in your local shopping center, advertising in magazine and through websites on the internet. They will buy your old gold jewellery for cash, it does not matter what condition the jewellery is in or how old . So you gather up all your old broken gold chains, the rings that have worn thin or the brooch that has gone out of fashion and approach one of these companies. You are astounded at how much money you are offered and accept readily and are quite pleased with the deal.
There is a problem with all this however, these companies are not quite as generous as they initially seem. Do you know how much money they should have offered you and if you really got a good price? Here is how they value your gold and a quick guide to working out how much they should have offered you. All your jewellery is valued as scrap even though much of it can be sold as antique or vintage jewellery at a higher price.
vintage gold jewellery
How scrap gold jewellery is valued:
These gold buying companies weigh you gold and offer you a price per gram depending on what carat purity your gold is. Gold has gone up in price so much recently that we are all surprised at what they offer us. Gold price varies from day to day, its a bit like the stock market going up and down all the time but whilst stocks have fallen recently gold prices have rocketed.
Looking around the websites of the companies buying gold today I see some are offering to buy nine carat gold for about £7.65 per gram and eighteen carat for twice that price. At least these companies are honest and telling you up front what they will pay. Many more of these websites will not give you a figure up front. You just send them the gold and wait and see how much turns up. Hmmm- not enough I suspect.
A little experiment
I tried a little experiament and approached one of the companies sitting in a shopping center waiting to buy gold. What would they offer me for my broken gold chain? I was astounded at how little they were paying – about £5 a gram for hallmarked nine carat – I should think not!
Getting a fair price
We all appreciate that the gold buying companies are entitled to a fair profit – they do provide a way for folks with a small amount of gold to turn it into cash and therefore should not be paying the full scrap gold price . Now you know how scrap gold is priced you can shop around and make sure that you get a fair price for your old gold jewellery.
A word of caution
Gold prices are changing regularly. Please do not rely on any values quoted in this article for the actual value of gold today – you will need to research that close to the time you wish to sell your jewellery. And no I do not buy scrap jewellery so please dont offer it to me.